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   Working Class History (workingclasshistory@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 20:19:09 JST Working Class History

   #OtD 16 Oct 1968 African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists in a Black power salute as they won medals. Peter Norman showed solidarity by wearing a badge protesting the white Australia policy https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8831/black-power-at-the-olympics?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 20:19:19 JST clacke

     in reply to

     @workingclasshistory #TIL about the #WhiteAustralia policy. Thank you.

     en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Au…

     The key feature of this legislation was the dictation test, which was used to bar non-white immigrants from entry. Subsequent acts further strengthened the policy.[11] These policies effectively gave British migrants preference over all others through the first half of the 20th century. During World War II, Prime Minister John Curtin reinforced the policy, saying "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race."

     
     Woah.

     The protest at the Mexico Olympic Games was in 1968, when some of the policy still remained, officially and unofficially, but was on its last breath:

     The Migration Act 1958 abolished the dictation test, while the Holt government removed discrimination against non-white applicants for citizenship in 1966. The Whitlam government passed laws to ensure that race would be totally disregarded as a component for immigration to Australia in 1973. In 1975, the Whitlam government passed the Racial Discrimination Act, which made racially-based selection criteria unlawful.